Is YOUR high school guilty of questionable accounting practices?
By BLAKE COOPER

    If you've read this site regularly, you'd know i have issues with the way our school handles money (if you don't, read about it here). On top of their budget, they charge the students for things that they could easily give out for cheap/free. To recap, our school:

* Requires that seniors get their yearbook picture taken at specific photographers.
* Charges $5 yearly for a mandatory 'agenda' and $10 for a mandatory 'lock and towel fee'
* Has increased the price of school lunches by 25 cents every year for the past four years

...so based on this, you would assume that the school has enough money to fund everything it needs, right? Wrong. Last year, despite popular demand, the driver's ed program was cut. This was frowned upon, but ultimately forgotten until just last week, when the school came up with a brand new policy! Now, any students parked in the CA lots without a 2003-2004 permit will get...a wheel lock! That's right, folks! If you aren't familiar with the wheel lock, it is a big piece of metal that attaches to a wheel to stop it from turning. So, basically, they immobilize your car if you park in their lots without a permit.

Now, i'm not unreasonable. I understand that students that park in the lot without a permit are irresponsible, but shouldn't there be some sort of class that teaches students how to be responsible drivers so this sort of thing won't happen? Oh, right, there was one....AND IT WAS CALLED DRIVER'S ED!!!!!!!! But it was cut from the budget!

So, let's recap. The school cut driver's ed from the budget, only to go out and buy a bunch of wheel locks to stop irresponsible drivers? Based on a basic internet search, the average wheel lock costs anywhere between $35 and $50. Does this seem like a bad use of money to anyone other than me? If you used driver's ed to teach students to use the permits and made it easier for them to get them, you wouldn't have this problem anyway, or at least wouldn't have it to the extent of having to go out and buy wheel locks! It's poor use of money like this that leads to budget problems, and, eventually, screwing over the students.

***NOTE: I'm not necessarily trying to pass along ALL the blame to the school, seeing as how the state's education budget probably plays a big role as well, but it is just as much the school's fault as it is the state's***